Is President Barack Obama the “most liberal president in U.S. history”? He doesn’t think so.
On Monday night, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly aired the second half of his pre-recorded interview with POTUS, the first half of which aired directly prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday. The host pressed the President on a variety of topics in the tense and confrontational interview, at one point even asking Obama if he was more liberal than any other president before him.
“Are you the most liberal president in U.S. history?” O’Reilly asked.
“Probably not,” Obama answered.
“Probably not?” the host questioned.
“Probably not,” Obama repeated. “That’s fair to say.”
When asked who he thought was most liberal, Obama pointed to Richard Nixon. O’Reilly said he had expected Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be Obama’s answer.
“Well, FDR — Johnson,” Obama replied. “But I tend not to think about these things in terms of … liberal and conservative because at any given time, the question is, ‘What does the country need right now?'”
This exchange came during a heated back-and-forth over the role of Fox News during Obama’s presidency. In the interview segment that aired Sunday, Obama unabashedly criticized the network for perpetuating questions about his administration’s handling of the 9/11 Benghazi attack and the Internal Revenue Service scandal.
And Obama’s criticism was even more emphatic in the segment that aired Monday. O’Reilly paved the way for the President by asking if he thought the Fox host was “being unfair.”
“Absolutely,” Obama answered. “Of course you have, Bill. But, I like you anyway, Bill.”
O’Reilly then pressed about why the President thought he was being unfair. Obama responded that the interview topics — the rough Obamacare rollout, Benghazi, the IRS scandal — were “defined” by the network in a “certain way.” The President continued by saying that he expected criticism, given his position as leader of the nation, but that he wondered what Fox would do after his term ended.
“I think regardless of whether it’s fair or not, it has made Fox News very successful,” Obama joked.
Watch the exchange below:
